Received a District Court Summons in the Mail 17 days before the Court Date

jc55566

Not looking for advice on this, we are contacting the relevant Gardaí to get this fixed.

My wife on her way home from work some months ago ended up becoming the filling in a M50 sandwich. She was deemed not a fault and all has been settled by insurance. When reporting the incident to the local Garda station she was asked for her insurance documents. She did not have them and was asked to produce them within 10 days. She showed them to a Garda friend of hers and thought nothing more of it. Long story short the Garda in question obviously forgot to update the system and she received a summons this morning (14/05) to appear in court 31/05, 17 days before the date.

Theoretically can the Gardaí stop this summons at this point and what would happen if she just did nothing and just didn't show up?

whomitconcerns

Don't not just show up anyway... That's showing disrespect to the court and you could end up in actual trouble. Just speak with the guard and if necessary request that he attends that day also to clarify

Mr. Incognito

Theoretically can the Gardaí stop this summons at this point and what would happen if she just did nothing and just didn't show up?

A bench warrant will issue for her arrest and the guards will arrest her and bring her to Court.

Contact the guards asap and turn up on the day

ScouseMouse

This happened to me. I had to go to court, documents in hand, show to the guard, explain I did present, and he stood up and asked for the charges to be withdrawn.

I had six summonses. No tax, no insurance, no licence, and three more for not presenting.

In my case I presented to gardai in Tallaght, but the guard was busy and jotted it down on a piece of paper. Obviously she lost it after that.

Claw Hammer

jc55566 wrote: »

She showed them to a Garda friend of hers and thought nothing more of it.

Some friend!

jc55566 wrote: »

Theoretically can the Gardaí stop this summons at this point and what would happen if she just did nothing and just didn't show up?

The summons can't be stopped but the Garda can decide not to proceed. The risk is that they tell you they will have it struck out and then don't follow up. You discover some weeks later that you have been convicted. There is then a tortuous process to try and sort it out. If you have been banned from driving, you will stay banned until an appeal is heard. You will have to notify your insurer of the ban.
The only thing to do is contact the prosecuting Garda before the court date, show all documents and ensure they are in order. It is then a very sensible to go to court and make sure the summons is struck out.

coylemj

Claw Hammer wrote: »

If you have been banned from driving, you will stay banned until an appeal is heard.

A ban or disqualification is put on hold if you appeal. Even if you don't appeal, it doesn't start until the time limit for lodging an appeal has expired.

Claw Hammer wrote: »

The only thing to do is contact the prosecuting Garda before the court date, show all documents and ensure they are in order. It is then a very sensible to go to court and make sure the summons is struck out.

+1 for an insurance summons, you definitely need to go to the court and make sure it's struck out.

Technically the OP is guilty of not producing because the responsibility on you is to produce in a Garda station nominated by you. Clearly you took a short cut and it backfired. However if the substantial charge (no insurance) is struck out, they usually strike out any subsidiary summons like failing to produce. Or apply the probation act which is the same thing.

4ensic15

coylemj wrote: »

A ban or disqualification is put on hold if you appeal. Even if you don't appeal, it doesn't start until the time limit for lodging an appeal has expired.



.

If someone is convicted in their absence they may not find about it out until after the time for an appeal is up. They then have to make a late appeal but they are stuck with the ban.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Sleeper12

When you have 10 days to produce you nominate a Garda station that you will show documents. Showing documents to a Garda friend wouldn't fulfil your obligation afaik.

4ensic15

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No.